Rockwell JawStand Work Support Review

Rockwell’s new JawStand is designed to serve as a work support, outfeed/extension table, and a third hand type support. It looks like a handy tool, but how well does it really work? Before we get to the meat of the review, I’ll just come right out and say it – the JawStand is as handy as it looks and works really, really well.

Features

The JawStand has a 1-3/4″ jaw capacity, can support 220 pounds, has an adjustable height of 25-41 inches, and its jaws can pivot 90° and rotate 360°. The feet of its tripod base are padded with a non-marring material, so it can be used on all types of floors. Except for its low-friction plastic liners and a few plastic knobs, the JawStand is entirely constructed from steel.

First Impressions

The JawStand is a sturdy beast of a work stand. It weighs less than 15 pounds but feels solid like a rock. It folds up pretty tightly and is ready to use right out of the box like Rockwell’s JawHorse. One of the inner jaw pads was missing, but a quick message to Rockwell resulted in an expedited replacement pad.

How We Tested the JawStand

The JawStand is intended to serve as an outfeed support, so I used it to support 2×4 beams that I was cutting on a miter saw. It’s supposed to support 220 lbs, so I used my ~180 lb body to test its limits. Finally, I tested its ability to securely grip 2x and 1x lumber.

Rockwell JawStand and as Outfeed Extension Support

Rockwell’s marketing materials describe how the JawStand’s low-friction curved plastic liners serve as a better outfeed support over rollers. Rollers can only direct workpieces in one direction whereas the JawStand allows it to glide in any direction.

The JawStand’s advantage is maximized in situation where a roller stand would be difficult to align with the direction of workpiece movement.

For the most part, the JawStand is quite a bit more stable than cheap roller stands, and is much quicker and easier to setup. Its plastic low-friction non-marring liners are screwed to the stand’s jaws, so they should be easy to replace if necessary.

Even if replacement liners are no longer available many years from now, it won’t be too much trouble for heavy users to make their own HDPE or UHMW liners.

The JawStand does have a fairly wide footprint compared to roller supports, but the extra stability it affords more than justifies this.

Pushing the JawStand to its Limits

If you need to support a lot of weight, consider Rockwell’s Jawhorse instead, with its 600 lb capacity. Even so, rated for 220 lbs, the JawStand is no slouch.

[Don’t try this at home!] So I decided to sit on top of the JawStand to see how well it could handle close to 200 lbs. The jaws sagged slightly, so I took a closer look at the height adjustment mechanism and tightened it a little more by hand.

The height adjustment seems to be a friction lock, so while light tightening was good enough for when the stand was used as an outeed table, it needed a little more hand tightening to support my weight. I sat back onto the stand and stayed there for a minute or two. I took a look at the height adjustment scale, and it had not moved by a measurable amount.

So can the JawStand support a decent amount of weight? Absolutely. But do NOT stand or sit on it.

Using the JawStand as a 3rd Hand Support

The jaws of the JawStand are fixed, with welded spacers separating them. A spring-loaded screw-clamp at the center of the jaws creates a 3-point clamping action in conjunction with two pads on the opposite jaw.

The two pads on the opposite jaw are pressed on, and as mentioned one was initially missing from the stand. A replacement pad arived promptly, and I screwed it on using the supplied hardware. While using the stand, the one pressed-on pad never once fell off by itself, leading me to believe that its mate may have been lost during packaging or at the factory.

I was able to easily exert enough clamping force with the knob-controlled clamp that a supported 2×4 began to bend. So even though the clamp looks somewhat small, it is still quite powerful. When the stand is used with the jaws fixed horizontally, a 2×4 beam rests upon welded steel spacers. When flipped vertically, the jaws only support 2×4 beams and other items with its three rubber pads.

The JawStand’s three rubber pads are spaced apart evenly, with the two fixed pads separated by 13-inches (center to center) and the screw-clamp on the opposite jaw centered between them.

With the jaws pivoted to the vertical position, I expected the 2×4 in its jaws to sag a bit, but it didn’t. I would be a little uncomfortable using the JawStand with its jaws at 90° in such a manner to support 220 lbs, but it definitely seems strong enough to support cabinets and hold interior doors.

Conclusions & Recommendations

The JawStand is touted as a workstand, outfeed work support, and as a 3rd-hand type support tool. After testing it out for a few real-world projects and seeing what it could do, I have concluded that it is very well suited for these tasks and perfectly satisfies Rockwell’s claims.

Price-wise, at $60-70 the JawStand is more expensive than simple roller stands, and cheaper than ball bearing supports. It performs quite a bit better than a roller stand as well, although some users may be worried about its plastic supports. As mentioned, I’m not at all concerned about these strips wearing out, but if it should happen they are easily user-replaceable even if replacements are not available.

As a work support, the JawStand is extremely handy. It can hold panels, doors, 1x and 2x lumber, and everything in between. I am fairly confident about its capabilities, but I wouldn’t load it up near its rated weight capacity unless the jaws were in a horizontal or near-horizontal position.

We asbolutely recommend it!

Rockwell JawStand via Woodcraft (currently ships for free)
Rockwell JawStand via Sears
JawStand via Amazon
Rockwell Home

Thank you to Rockwell for providing the sample for this review unconditionally. Review samples are typically given away, donated, or in some cases kept for further testing or benchmark and comparison purposes.